But all Howard says is he wants to play in a bigger market. He does not repeat that he wants to play for a team that can win the NBA title. He wants to play for a team in a bigger market, and has listed Los Angeles, Dallas and New Jersey as teams he would consider.

It’s not the teams we’re talking about, although we could, and if we did, then New Jersey reeks. Do you want someone who’s too dumb to avoid the Nets?

Point is, Howard says he wants to play in a bigger market, not on a better team. Like he’s too stupid to know the difference.

Or maybe he’s not stupid. Maybe it’s his agents and/or personal management who are stupid. Maybe his agents are thinking money, as agents do. Howard, though, ought to be in charge. Howard is in charge, whether he knows it or not, and should act like it.

So, how come Howard hasn’t told his people that he wants to play for a winner? How come he hasn’t made it clear that all these trade requests and non-denial denials and general doubletalk don’t end with “because I want to win a title’’?

I can’t knock money. I’d love what Howard is getting, and I’d love how much more he’ll get. But when you talk bigger market over better chance for a title, then you’re praying to the God of cha-ching, not-cha-championships, which kind of makes you a cha-chump.

A rich, chump, sure, but a chump, nonetheless.

Tell you what, wanting to go to a bigger market is a worse athletic crime than LeBron James’ wanting to play in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. James got ripped by some for teaming up in someone else’s city instead of trying to be “the Man’’ in winning a title in Cleveland. Have you ever heard such stupidity? Like there are degrees of title-winning. Ask Karl Malone about degrees of title-winning.

Being “The Man’’ doesn’t matter. Being a champion does. At least James went to a place where he believed he had a chance to win multiple titles.

Howard, meanwhile, just wants to go to a bigger market. The millions he’s collected from his shoe deal just aren’t enough, apparently. Or maybe he wants to do movies. Perhaps open a restaurant. Anything except making winning a title a priority, apparently.